In this Discussion

2 questions

1. My friend wants to do retail flips. I'm trying to find deals on MLS for her. It is so difficult to find deal below market value at this stage. I know some top players still flip 200 houses a year but it is difficult for me and many new investors. My questions is how do I search for those properties on MLS. I use key words such as "motivated seller" or "fixups" on the hot sheets but it doesn't work well. Do you have a better way to search for it.

2. I'm interested in becoming REO or short sale listing agent. However, I'm a new agent haven't done any deals so far. Is it possible for me to start as REO agent or shall I get some experience as selling agent then move to REO listing agent.

Thank you very much for your time.

Comments

1. It is very hard to find those deals. I would narrow down the hot sheets to specific markets or properties she is looking for and scan them a couple times a day. If you know the market well you should be able to scan the prices and addresses quickly and look for any good deals. Many times the key words will miss good deals.

2. It is tough to get into REO right away, but you can start doing BPOs.

My understanding from the Real Estate Investors I'm working with is that it's always very difficult to find good deals on MLS as there's always millions of people looking.

The most used techniques from the investors I work with are:

1. Looking at sites like craigslist and similar, where they have a virtual assistant look for certain criteria's eg minimum 3 bed/2bath, min/max price etc

2. "Drive for Dollars" aka drive around different places and look for houses that looks like they are not taken care of with overgrown gardens and the likes.

3. Pay Per Click advertisement (Particularly Facebook seem to work good, aimed at people looking for quick cash deals.

The most important thing and what really seem to work is stay on leads - even if they say no to a cash offer, do something to put yourself in front of them again and again - what they might not like today might be more tasty in a month or two.

Since most of the ads are "Pay Per Click" you can decide your own budget - I have facebook customers using everything from $20 per month to $5000+ The more you put in, the more you get out, but one of the key things is figuring out what the ROI is as example, if you can put a price per lead, lets say $50 as example and it cost you an average of $30 advertising to get it, that a good deal - If you end up paying $75 it's not a good deal put very simplistic.

It always takes a bit of trail and error in the start. For smaller budgets, we usually run the first campaigns 1 week, with $5 per day as a budget, to test initial response.